Dark Paradise
by hella whitlock
Summary: NM AU. Bella returns from AZ with thoughts of another vampire weighing heavily on her mind. Assuming it was nothing more than Hero Worship since he rescued her, she pushed all the feelings it brought up away. Until she is caught in the act, literally. Now her vampire world is blown open. The Cullens looking more and more tame the further she's sucked in. JxB


Dark Paradise

Chapter One

What the hell was wrong with me? Ever since we got back from Phoenix, I've been having the craziest dreams. They always started as a nightmare. James had me in the ballet studio all over again. The metallic scent of my blood filled the air around me and it was making bile rise in my throat. My vision was blurry with my tears. I could see blonde hair and red eyes that danced with joy. Screaming, probably my own. The blonde hair and red eyes were replaced with a darker set of blond curls and black eyes. All the terror fled from my body and I felt safe. His mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what was said. Everything was muted. Like I was under water. I closed my eyes for what felt like only seconds, and opened them to Edward's anguished face. The pain and fear was leaking back into my subconscious. Being in Edward's arms felt wrong. I wanted the other one. I wanted that safe, comforting feeling back. I tried to sit up, to look past Edward. Emmett was holding James by his neck. I saw Jasper walking back and forth in front of him. Jasper. I struggled so hard against the pain. To call for him, to tell Edward to go away, that Jasper was what I needed to feel safe. Secure. I watched Jasper grab onto his head and in a second he was throwing it towards Emmett as James body fell to the ground. The noise was deafening. Suddenly Edward was ripped away from me with a thunderous roar. He was back. Jasper was back, and I was safe.

"Isabella?"

I blinked my eyes a few times, and looked over at Edward. We were sitting with my friends and his family at lunch. All eyes were on me. Emmett seemed amused, Rosalie just seemed annoyed with me. Nothing new with those two. Alice looked smug, Jasper looked concerned, and Edward looked upset. Everyone else had already gone back to talking amongst themselves. I guess everyone looked like business as usual.

"What?" I asked, looking down at my food, my hair making a curtain around my reddening face. I just wanted to avoid another lecture from Edward. I felt a tiny amount of amusement and calm cascading over my skin, before it was pulled away and I was left with my embarrassment at being the center of attention. I peered up at Jasper through my hair and gave him a tiny smile of gratitude. Apparently that was the wrong thing to do at that moment.

"Is there a reason in particular why you are day dreaming about Jasper and making eyes at him while I sit right next to you, and Alice next to him?" Edward hissed quietly into my ear so no one else would hear. I was well aware that the other vampires at the table could hear. I jerked my head up quickly to stare at Edward. My eyes wide, partially with fear, partially with shock. Edward had never spoken to me so harshly before. Let alone so accusingly.

"What the fuck are you even talking about?" I whispered back, not caring if it was so loud that everyone at my table heard. Human and Vampire. His eyes narrowed, and he turned his eyes on Jasper. They were doing that infuriating Vampire Talk shit. With Edward I could never tell if someone was talking to him telepathically or not. I couldn't hear what they were saying, or even see their lips moving. The only thing that seemed to change on their faces were their expressions. Jasper looked absolutely lethal as he argued with Edward. This must be the super dangerous Vampire Jasper I wasn't allowed to be around but whom was obviously good enough to stay with the family. The humans at the table looked back and forth between the two, not understanding what was going on. In fact, if I were to guess I would say that Alice and Edward were the only ones who knew what was really going on. I had this intense urge to go to Jasper. To do something... Comfort him. I even kind of wanted to tell Edward to leave him alone. It wasn't Jasper's fault that I was day dreaming about him saving me... And other things that I hoped no one knew about. Other things that I also hoped would come true at any given moment. I was so glad Edward couldn't read my mind in that very moment. I was begging Jasper to look at me. To stop arguing with Edward. To just look at me. I needed his eyes on me so bad, and I couldn't understand why. I craved his attention like a pregnant woman would crave ice cream and pickles. I just compared Jasper to ice cream and pickles. Well, Jasper's attention anyway. My dreams were leaking into reality and maybe Edward was right. Maybe I was making eyes at Jasper. It wasn't like I meant to. I loved Edward. I must have my mother's slut gene or something. Before I could even finish my trail down to Guilty Lake, Jasper looked at me. I would swear to you that in that moment time stopped for me. I exhaled a long breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I couldn't tear my eyes away. When I finally did, it was because Edward grabbed my shoulder and jerked me towards him. Eye contact with Jasper broken, left me feeling dazed. I looked up at Edward's angry face. Everything I had previously thought about how handsome he was, was erased with how full of malice and hatred filled his features were. His brow was knit, lips turned into a scowl. This was Vampire Edward, I realized suddenly. A whole other side of Edward I had never met. Hadn't even realized that it even existed.

"Edward!" I heard Jasper say, but I was too terrified to move. "Take ya fuckin' hands off of her, you are scaring the shit out of her!" His voice sounded far away, and quieter still when he said, "I swear on my momma's eyes if you hurt my mate, nothing will save you from me." Edward's grip tightened on me. He sounded completely deadly and I abstractedly wondered who was messing with Alice to get such a threat. I couldn't bring my gaze away from Edward to see if she was okay. Suddenly I was pulled away from Edward's face, and into another visual. There was a cake, silver streamers and a Happy Birthday banner across the ceiling. There I walked in, holding hands with Edward. It seemed so out of place though. I looked miserable, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Edward looked smugly at someone just to the right of where I was watching from. The vision panned down and grasped someone's hand tightly in their own. 'Soon' was a whispered promise. Then everything got hazy and the next thing I saw was me on the floor, with blood everywhere. Edward being hauled outside in pieces. Someone was murmuring frantically over and over. I could only catch parts of it with how fast it was repeating. 'Wasn't supposed... Not like this... Volturi will surely... It's over... It's over... It's over...'

When I snapped out of it I was staring at my hands, mumbling the same thing I had heard in the vision. It was then that I understood. I saw what Alice saw. The humans at the table were looking at me as if I had grown a second head. I was terrified. Not just of Edward, but of what had just happened to me. I had heard very little of the Volturi, but I knew they were something I should be afraid of. How had I managed to see what Alice had seen? Was it something she had seen right then, or something she had seen before? Before I could think too much about anything else Alice and Rosalie helped me from my seat just as the bell rang.

"Don't worry Bella. We won't let that happen." Alice said softly, as she took me to Rosalie's red BMW. I looked from Alice to Rosalie, seeing nothing but concern for me in their eyes. I had no idea what had happened to change Rosalie's opinion of me, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I got in the back seat with Alice, while Rosalie sat in the front passenger. I wondered why she didn't climb in the drivers seat. Maybe Emmett was coming too. Alice wrapped both of her arms around me, holding me tightly to her. I wrapped my arms around her too. It felt so comfortable and safe. Alice had never embraced me so tightly and securely before. She must have been just as rattled from her vision as I was. Even though that was my first time being sucked into one of her visions, I imagined it was something like how Edward could share in her visions with her.

"Alice..." Rosalie started, before being interrupted immediately by Alice.

"I can't Rose. I can't. Not yet. There are too many decisions to be made." She said, closing her eyes tightly and rocking me gently back and forth as if to encourage another vision. I used to see her doing this around the Cullen property. Everyone always told me to stay away and not disturb her, that she was concentrating. She spends so much time worrying about others, she might even have me beat as the local worry wort.

"Are you taking me away from Edward?" I asked in what to me seemed like a surprisingly calm demeanor. I didn't get an answer to that however, because Jasper took that moment to slide into the driver's seat, starting the car up and driving away from Forks High without so much as a backwards glance to the school, or to me. I sighed, annoyed that I was being left out of yet another conversation, another decision about my life.

"Please don't feel like that, Isabella." I could count on one hand the amount of times I had heard Jasper address me directly. This would be the third. "I know you have heard this before, but we are doing this to protect you."

"Protect me from Edward?" I asked, begging for his eyes to meet mine in the rear-view mirror. They did, briefly. Then they were back on the road, and I could tell by his furrowed brow he didn't know how to answer that. Alice went completely still and I felt myself missing the rocking back and forth. Sitting on Alice's tiny frame when she goes completely rock hard is just uncomfortable. Just as suddenly as she went still, she relaxed.

"Yes." She answered, reaching forward and putting a hand on Jasper's shoulder while he drove. "Everything is changing rapidly. Edward knows how to distort my visions when it comes to him. As you know, you and Bella are the hardest for me to see." She paused, smiling down at me. "You know, a lot would be different if I could just see you clearly." I shrugged as if to apologize, but I wasn't sorry. I had no idea what was going on still. I felt like now wasn't the time to ask questions. She turned back to Jasper and Rosalie in the front seat, wrapping her arms back around me.

"I want to try something new. Rosalie, will you think about taking Bella somewhere? Anywhere will do." She started, but I interrupted her quickly.

"Am I not going back home? Is this like with James? Because if I don't leave a note for my Dad, or at least talk to him he will ground me for life and never let me see any of you again." Jasper barked out a laugh at that. "And just what is so fucking funny about that Jasper Hale!" I blew up on him and Alice's arms tightened around me a little bit. "I hate being in the dark, I hate no one fucking telling me anything and I am sick to fucking death about being in danger!" Jasper just laughed more, like there was something funny about me losing my temper. I was getting even more worked up, when he pulled over to the side of the road.

"Isabella." He turned around fully to face me in the back seat. I glared at him.

"It's Bella." I sneered. He was pissing me off. How dare he sit there and laugh and smile at me like everything is okay?

"Isabella." He emphasized, continuing before I could put in again. My eyes narrowed at him anyway. "Do you want the truth? The hundred percent truth about your mate?"

"Yes, and while we are at it, why don't we discuss who is threatening Alice, and why?" I demanded. Now I guess it was Alice's turn to trill with laughter.

"No one is threatening me, Bella." Alice said, and she squeezed me gently, kissing the side of my face. "What makes you think that?" She pushed the hair out of my face and smiled at me. It was really reassuring and had a calming effect on me.

"Jasper said he swore on his mother's life that..." I stopped talking as I saw Jasper's expression turn serious, all signs of his humor gone. "What?" I asked sharply. The wind was blowing out of my sails and I hated that. "Stop manipulating my emotions!" I accused him. He shook his head, I wasn't sure if that was because he wasn't going to stop or wasn't doing it to begin with.

"Tell her or I will." Rosalie cut in. Alice went still for a moment.

"Oh god, no. That will be horrible Rose." She said when she had come out of another vision. "I can do it, Jasper. It would be better if you grew some balls though." I had never heard Alice talk like that. It was hilarious, and I couldn't help but grinning at her.

"I will tell you everything. Edward is on his way, and he is a threat to you. You are not safe with anyone but the people in this car."

"And Emmett." Rosalie added,

"And Emmett, Peter and Charlotte." He corrected himself. I had heard very little about Peter and Charlotte. I only knew that they were friends of Jasper's that Edward abhorred. He reached forward and grasped my hands in his. His skin felt unnaturally warm. For a vampire, I mean. He felt like a human. My eyes widened and I saw his eyes soften from the serious expression he had held all afternoon.

"Edward Cullen is not your mate." I tried to yank my hands out of his, but he resisted. Holding on tightly. I tried to look anywhere but his gaze, but he held me pinned with his darkened auburn eyes. "Edward doesn't want to change you, because you will find your real mate. He is keeping you from discovering your true mate on purpose. We believe under someone's orders. I have a lot of enemies so the list is endless." He seemed about to continue so I had to cut in while I could get a word in edgewise. For someone who was never really wordy, he sure could talk when so inclined.

"Who is my mate?" I asked, my voice showing the emotion that I felt. Confusion, fear... I couldn't even begin to decide what emotion I was feeling. Panic. The last thing I saw before my vision went dark was Jasper's concerned face.


End file.
